BONNEVILLE DAM, Wash. - The tiny fish-counting station, with its window onto the Columbia River, was darkened so the migrating salmon would not be spooked. And it was silent - until the shimmering bodies began to flicker by. Then the room erupted with loud clicks, as Janet Dalen's fingers flew across her stumpy keyboard. Tallying the darting specimens, she chanted and chortled, her voice a cross between fish whisperer and aquatic auctioneer. Her body swayed from left to right. Her tightly curled bangs never moved.

California started giving a ride to millions of young Chinook salmon this week after the state's record-breaking drought left rivers too dry for them to migrate on their own. Over the next two months, state and federal officials plan to truck up to 30 million fish from five hatcheries in the Central Valley to rivers and streams near the Pacific Ocean, an effort intended to save the state's fishing industry in coming years. The salmon are a big part of California's $1.5-billion commercial and recreational fishing industry, according to the Nature Conservancy.

The West Coast will have a salmon fishing season for the first time in two years, but it will be a far cry from the days when abundant chinook catches drove a multimillion-dollar industry in the region. The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted late Thursday to recommend an abbreviated commercial trolling season for Sacramento Delta chinook. The council, which advises federal regulators, settled on a longer -- but still curtailed -- season for ocean sport fishing of the salmon south of Point Arena.

How do young, naive salmon with no migratory experience somehow voyage through vast, shifting ocean waters to wind up at specific feeding grounds that are hundreds, even thousands, of kilometers away from the rivers where they were hatched? It turns out these fish may have a magnetic 'map' in their heads that enables them to sense and navigate using the Earth's magnetic fields rather like a GPS. The findings, published in Current Biology, “likely explain the extraordinary navigational abilities evident in many long-distance underwater migrants,” the study authors wrote.

Removing four hydroelectric dams and restoring habitat on Northern California's Klamath River would significantly boost the watershed's chinook salmon population and the commercial salmon catch, according to several dozen federal reports released Wednesday. The U.S. Interior Department will rely on the documents to decide whether the dams should be torn down. Removal of the structures would open upper portions of the Klamath to struggling salmon populations that have been blocked from historic spawning grounds for nearly a century.

The Army, saying an April 21 accident in Honduras involving a CH-47D helicopter was caused by human error, lifted an order Wednesday that had grounded its fleet of the giant helicopters since May 4. The decision means all 61 of the workhorse Chinook helicopters may return to flying status immediately, said Lt. Col. Craig MacNab, an Army spokesman. Many of the aircraft are based at Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Investigators theorize that the killer of six sea lions on the Columbia River arrived by boat and was familiar with trapping methods, closing the doors of two metal cages before firing a high-powered rifle at the animals within. The sea lions' carcasses were found Sunday. Wildlife agents had begun trapping sea lions last month to keep them from eating endangered chinook salmon. The trapping has been suspended. American Indian tribes protecting their fisheries and state governments representing commercial and sport fishermen had promoted the sea lion removal.

California started giving a ride to millions of young Chinook salmon this week after the state's record-breaking drought left rivers too dry for them to migrate on their own. Over the next two months, state and federal officials plan to truck up to 30 million fish from five hatcheries in the Central Valley to rivers and streams near the Pacific Ocean, an effort intended to save the state's fishing industry in coming years. The salmon are a big part of California's $1.5-billion commercial and recreational fishing industry, according to the Nature Conservancy.

Over the last two decades, the use of modern genetic engineering technology to produce pharmaceuticals and new crop plants has given rise to prodigious scientific, humanitarian and financial successes. But its application to animals for food has lagged behind despite the fact that animal protein is expensive and increasingly sought-after worldwide. The reason for the lag is not technical difficulty. Thousands of animals with genes deleted or added have been engineered for scientific purposes; the catalog of available lines resembles the telephone directory of a small city, and these animals have made incalculable contributions to the understanding of mammalian gene function in health and disease.

The world goes white as the rotors of the Army helicopter grab for air. Somewhere below, uncomfortably close, looms a huge mountain, the largest in North America. "Fifty, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5," an airman counts on the intercom as the twin-engine CH-47C settles toward Mt. McKinley. Squinting out the open rear door of the Chinook, he is the only man aboard who can see the ground. "Contact!"

BONNEVILLE DAM, Wash. - The tiny fish-counting station, with its window onto the Columbia River, was darkened so the migrating salmon would not be spooked. And it was silent - until the shimmering bodies began to flicker by. Then the room erupted with loud clicks, as Janet Dalen's fingers flew across her stumpy keyboard. Tallying the darting specimens, she chanted and chortled, her voice a cross between fish whisperer and aquatic auctioneer. Her body swayed from left to right. Her tightly curled bangs never moved.

The once-legendary salmon streams of the Pacific Northwest have been battling steep declines in the celebrated fish for years, and nowhere has the challenge been tougher than on the Klamath River, with salmon struggling to survive the perils of dams, drought and water wars on the river that flows from southern Oregon into California. But in a stunning reversal that state wildlife officials are at a loss to fully explain, nearly 1.6 million chinook salmon, the big, meaty fish most prized by fishermen, are expected to try to make their way into and up the river to spawn this fall.

When he was in kindergarten, he would answer only to the name John Wayne. After high school, he battled wildfires in the rugged mountains of Northern California. And as an elite Navy SEAL, he went on nighttime raids in Afghanistan, missions both dangerous and top secret. Equal parts daring, determined and goofy, Jesse Pittman was as renowned for his practical jokes — often elaborate and largely unprintable — as he was for his bravery and discipline. Pittman, who spent most of his life in the small Mendocino County town of Willits , died Aug. 6 in Taliban territory when the Chinook helicopter that carried him and 29 other American troops was shot down.

Removing four hydroelectric dams and restoring habitat on Northern California's Klamath River would significantly boost the watershed's chinook salmon population and the commercial salmon catch, according to several dozen federal reports released Wednesday. The U.S. Interior Department will rely on the documents to decide whether the dams should be torn down. Removal of the structures would open upper portions of the Klamath to struggling salmon populations that have been blocked from historic spawning grounds for nearly a century.

Sixty-seven U.S. troops died last month in the Afghanistan war, nearly half of them killed when the Taliban shot down a Chinook helicopter, making August the deadliest month for Americans in the nearly decadelong conflict. The attack on the helicopter, which took place Aug. 6 in Wardak province, west of the capital, was also the deadliest single event of the war for U.S. forces. The 30 service members who lost their lives in the attack — the majority of them Navy SEALs, including some from the unit responsible for killing Osama bin Laden — were flying in to help Army Rangers under fire.

The retribution wasn't long in coming. An American airstrike killed the Taliban insurgents whose attack caused a helicopter crash that killed 22 Navy SEALs and eight other U.S. service members, military officials in Kabul and Washington said Wednesday. However, Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters at the Pentagon that the main Taliban leader in the area remained at large. He did not identify that insurgent commander, the hunt for whom set in motion the events that led to the crash of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Saturday.

Astoria, Oregon, 1887 "M oishe !" my mama yelled from the kitchen of our cabin on the bank of the Columbia River. "What now, Mama?" "Come peel potatoes for the latkes!" [potato pancakes] "I'm making a dreidel . " [A dreidel is a toy similar to a spinning top.] "Then take the menorah and candles out!" [A menorah is a nine-branched candle holder used to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.] Just as I put my dreidel down, my poppy marched in like the Angel Michael and saved the day!

With a historic salmon fishing ban keeping the West Coast fleet tied up at the docks, a top Bush administration official Thursday declared a fishery failure that could allow the industry to land a $60-million federal bailout. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez's announcement comes amid what he called "the unprecedented collapse" of the salmon population off California and Oregon. By proclaiming a salmon fishery failure for waters off the two states, Gutierrez gives Congress a green light to consider a bailout of the West's fishing industry for the second time in the last three years.

The remains of the 30 Americans killed aboard a Chinook helicopter that was shot down by insurgents early Saturday were flown home Monday night, as military commanders pledged that the devastating crash would not compromise the overall war effort. In a statement released early Tuesday, U.S. Marine Gen. John R. Allen, who assumed command in Afghanistan only weeks ago, paid tribute to the slain troops, most of whom were elite Navy SEALs. He said U.S. and coalition forces would "continue to relentlessly pressure the enemy . . . and bring lasting and enduring peace to this historic land.

The downing of an American helicopter full of elite troops deepened concerns among some Afghans that it might symbolize an erosion of U.S. power at an uncertain crossroads in the nearly 10-year-old war. In the rugged district of Wardak province where the U.S. Chinook helicopter crashed early Saturday, apparently after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, NATO and Afghan forces engaged in daylong skirmishes with suspected Taliban fighters, according...